Mysore Cements to re-hire Lodha

Mysore Cements Ltd, the S K Birla group flagship, has decided to re-appoint Lodha & Co as statutory auditors.

The decision has given a fresh twist to the Birla-Lodha feud which experience ouster of the auditor firm from a handful of Birla companies as well as firms owned by promoted close to the Birlas.

A special resolution pertaining to the re-appointment of Lodha & Co as auditors would be placed before the shareholders of Mysore at the company's annual general meeting on September 29, sources in the Birla group said.

The move surprised the corporate observers, especially after group chairman S K Birla made it public that the Birla family members "" in correctness of things "" decided to maintain distance with the Lodhas.

Mysore Cements even deferred its annual general meeting by 12 days.

A host of Birla companies, including Hindalco and Indo Gulf Fertiliser, removed Lodha & Co. South Asia Petrochem, a company managed by the Kolkata-based Dhanuka family, also announced to remove Lodha & Co last week.

S K Birla is a part of the Birla family member who are fighting a legal battle with the Lodhas over the controversial will of Priyamvada Birla which bequeathed the assets of the M P Birla group to R S Lodha, chairman of Lodha & Co.